The "Sith Lord" eats Oreos

Finally. The Utah voucher fight is over! The 62% of Utahns who voted against taxpayer subsidized vouchers for private schools have spoken. Maybe we can finally put that issue to rest and work on making a difference for the 96% of Utah's kids who attend public schools.

Let it not be said that the campaign was boring. Anything but! Everyone waited to see what the proponents would come up with next. They certainly seemed to employ some bizarre campaign tactics.

And, I, for one, waited with anticipation to see what Patrick Byrne would say next!

He didn't disappoint.

Early in the evening he told a news station that the voucher vote was an "IQ test" for Utah voters as noted by Deseret Spectacle here:

"I think that this is basically a state-wide IQ test, and I'm very interested to see whether Utah passes or fails the IQ test." - Byrne said.

OK, then as it became clear that vouchers were being rejected in EVERY county in the state, Byrne came up with this gem:

"They (Utahns) don't care enough about their kids. They care an awful lot about this system, this bureaucracy, but they don't care enough about their kids to think outside the box," Byrne said.

So, according to know-it-all Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com - the non-profit making company - who is under investigation by the SEC - Utahns are...well....stupid.

Not only are Utahns stupid, they don't care about their kids! WHAT?!?!

Oh, and that is not enough. No, Byrne had to impugn the integrity of Gov. Jon Huntsman when he said:

"When he asked for my support [for governor] he told me he is going to be the voucher governor. Not only was it his No. 1 priority, it was what he was going to be all about," Byrne said. "He did, I think, a very tepid job, and then when the polls came out on the referendum, he was pretty much missing in action." (Reported here in the Tribune.)

Geez. This time Byrne can't say his words were taken out of context, as he did when the NAACP asked him to apologize for saying that minority children who didn't graduate from high school should be "burned" or "thrown away."

I imagine all of Byrne's comments will come under scrutiny in the next state he plans to take his message: South Carolina, as Accountability First reports here.

South Carolinians, beware Patrick Byrne. He thinks you are stupid, you don't care about your kids, and if they are minorities, they should be "burned."

And, a message just for you, Patrick: The "Sith Lord" eats Oreos.

Another great "Not an Oreo" ad

A kind reader forwarded to me a GREAT "Not an Oreo" ad that you should watch. It, too, is on You Tube.

This is a Utah public school teacher explaining, with stacks and stacks of sandwich creme cookies, just what it takes to run a school.

He highlights that money is spent for many, many things to support every student in the school - counselors, bus transportation, janitors, computer labs, libraries, etc.

AND, he very effectively highlights how efficient schools are because teachers serve hundreds of students.

It's worth a watch, so I hope you will take the time.

It is here, as well as above.

Thank you kind readers for sending me the material. And, thank you fellow bloggers for helping share this good message.

More questions than answers

As I was reading and contemplating Bob Aagard's world here wherein he posits about the absence of media attention to key questions surrounding pro-voucher backers, I followed his link to the accountabilityfirst blog that asked similar questions.

Both just caused me to think of more questions that I wish someone would answer.

For example, why are Richard and Linda Eyre so supportive of vouchers for private school? They don't seem to have a financial stake (yet) in private school operations, though they do sell a pre-school curriculum, noted here.

(As an aside, I noted that the Eyre's "value of the month" is self-reliance. Can someone please tell me what is self-reliant about parents accepting public taxpayer funds to pay for private school? Wouldn't a truly "self-reliant" parent eschew tax dollars and dig deeply into his or her pocket, in a self-reliant way, and pay for their own children?)

Another question for the media: Do PCE, or the Eyres, have trademark permission from Nabisco, et. al. to use Oreo cookies in their demonstrations and TV ads?

If vouchers are so good that stacks of Oreo cookies can be used to demonstrate how wonderful vouchers supposedly are for the public schools, why aren't the Double Stuffed Oreos used? That would make vouchers twice as good! YUM.

Or if truth in advertising is applied to the Eyres' commercial, why are they not forced to use the Oreo 100 calorie snack size since vouchers really are NOT good or yummy for public schools?

Sigh. We may never know.